Not much comfort for industry and the attempt to sell GM benefits from
this Nordic survey: “a strong stability in consumer reactions” to
GM food in these four countries.

Consumer perception was characterised by “a basic dichotomy”: foodstuffs
were either GM or not. “It is regarded as a major benefit in itself that
a product is non-GM.”

Daily - 15/11/00

Nordic consumers are united in their negative attitude to genetically
modified (GM) food, according to a new survey.

The study used three food products as example - hard cheese, hard sweets
and salmon; and three types of applications of genetic modification: modification
of the raw material, use of genetic modification in enzyme production and
use of GM micro-organisms.

Three “levels of presence” of the GM material in the final product were
also put to the consumer sample: not present, present, or present and living/able
to function. Results from consumer samples in Denmark, Finland, Norway
and Sweden were “remarkably similar” write the survey’s authors, “showing
a strong stability in consumer reactions” to GM food in thesefour countries.

Consumer perception was characterised by “a basic dichotomy”: foodstuffs
were either GM or not. “It is regarded as a major benefit in itself that
a product is non-GM. When a product involves genetic modification, this
elicits numerous negative associations, of which the strongest ones are
‘unhealthy’ and ‘uncertainty’,” the authors write.

Types of application of genetic modification also had an impact on consumer
acceptance, but differed across products. “Still, there is a clear tendency
that acceptance of salmon products where the salmon itself was genetically
modified was lowest among all products tested.”

Consumers were aware of potential benefits of GM technology, such as
improved taste, functional benefits and environmental benefits. But these
“could not compensate” for its negative associations. Some supposed benefits,
such as faster salmon growth, were perceived as disadvantages.

GM products that were least mistrusted combined personal tangible benefits
with societal relevance, such as low-calorie sweets that could be consumed
by diabetics. The study was carried out by research institutions in the
four countries in connection with a wide-ranging “consumers and
biotechnology” project initiated by the Nordic Industrial Fund.